Demand for Speed Carbon: Own the City is, for all intents and purposes, an entirely different game from the Demand for Speed Carbon that'due south currently actualization on the Xbox 360, PC, PlayStation two, and so on. The basic conceit is much the same--you and your team of street racers take on other crews in a bid to take full command of the city--but a lot of the details are different and many are better for information technology.

There's some cloak-and-dagger business going on in Coast City's street racing scene.
There's some surreptitious business going on in Coast City'due south street racing scene.

Own the City is ultimately a revenge tale, which starts off with a flashback to the event that triggers your character's vengeance. During a street race that both you and your brother, Mick, are competing in, something goes horribly wrong. The accident leaves you in the hospital with some nasty amnesia and Mick dead. Simply information technology seems that there was a third car involved, which was no accident at all. 6 months later when you get back on your feet, the scene has changed dramatically. So yous accept to the streets to detect out who's responsible for your blood brother's death with your old racing buddy, Carter, and your blood brother's ex-girlfriend, Sara, by your side. It's a surprisingly resonant story that takes a little time to mankind out and define some of the cadre characters. It as well has some good twists and turns that really help to steel your character'due south resolve. The story sequences are pretty slickly produced, with some singled-out-looking comic-style art and voice work that tends toward the better side of average.

In its apparent continued effort to expand the Need for Speed geography, EA has prepare Own the City in an all-new fictional town called Coast City. Like Bayview, Rockport, and Palmont City earlier it, Coast City is a large, sprawling metropolis with a lot of unique districts. There'south plenty of run-downward dust in the industrial, junkyard, inner city, and stone quarry areas, merely they're not far from the lengthy tracts of winding highways that make their fashion up into the chilly surrounding mountains. On the other side of boondocks, you lot'll discover the more refined side of Coast City, with a sleek glass-and-steel high-rise district. It besides includes a cozier residential district, a squeamish college campus, and the metropolis'south drome. Even if this were a total-fledged console game, the size of Coast City would be respectable. It's got a level of detail and an organic layout that gives you lot a actually strong sense of identify. The singled-out feel of each district also gives the whole game a lot of personality. But all of that item comes at a price because at college speeds, the frame rate can get a petty inclement.

Coast City is finer your playground, and you lot can tool around equally yous please. You'll occasionally run into rival racing crews who can challenge you to a race on the spot, as well as cops who don't take too kindly to street racers. Whether you lot're in a race or just out on the boondocks, there's not a lot of traffic in Coast City. What'southward there besides looks a little cheap, which takes a little away from the game'due south reality. Your real objective is to take the fight to the rival racing crews throughout Coast Urban center. Each district is controlled by a different crew, and there'due south a set list of race events that you take to win. If you win a number of events, you'll go to take on the coiffure boss. If yous beat out the crew boss, y'all'll not but take control of that commune simply besides unlock new cars and upgrades for purchase. There's a fairly focused progression to the chief story manner. You'll only have admission to one or two districts throughout most of the game, limiting which events you can take on at any given time. Typically, though, in that location are ordinarily more events in each district than yous need to win in social club to take on the district'due south crew boss. So at that place is some flexibility as to which races yous take on because of the extra events.

Although the cars handle nicely, the types of races can get monotonous after a while.
Although the cars handle nicely, the types of races tin can become monotonous subsequently a while.

There's little multifariousness to the types of events. Y'all tin can expect a number of standard circuit, dart, and knockout races. There are also escape events where you take to go out of a crew's turf in a express amount of time while the crew gives chase. The delivery events challenge yous to outrun a group of challengers to a specific commitment point. The escape and commitment events are pretty similar in practice and both come with a fair amount of frustration. Yous're guided to your goal in these modes by an onscreen arrow that will indicate you to your specific turns as you approach them. The problem is that the arrow generally doesn't start to turn early on plenty, so yous'll often blow past your turns on the commencement run-through. Even worse, the arrow doesn't always bespeak you toward the fastest possible route. It's only through repetition and memorization that you lot'll win many of these events. The most unique events are the crew takedown events. These are surprisingly reminiscent of the takedown events first seen in EA's own, aptly named, Burnout 3: Takedown. Here, you're given a limited corporeality of fourth dimension to knock a number of rival crew cars by slamming into them repeatedly. This as well provides mostly a good modify of step from the residue of the game'due south typically speed-obsessed events.

Fifty-fifty if the consequence types aren't fantastic, the handling on the cars makes up for a lot. There's a neat option of existent-world cars to purchase and customize, including many of the tuner, muscle, and exotic cars establish in the console versions of Need for Speed Carbon. Each 1 also comes with unique and generally appropriate handling characteristics. Cars that you unlock in the career mode get available in the game'due south multiplayer mode, which lets y'all compete in circuit and sprint races both locally and over the Internet. It also ways that you'll need to play a proficient deal of the game unmarried-player before y'all go online. Our online experience was a little laggy, simply it'south pretty well fleshed-out. Information technology also has a ranking system that helps ensure yous'll exist taking on similarly experienced players.

Regardless of where yous play Ain the City, it's not an overly technical, realistic racer. Yous can pretty much turn through whatsoever peripheral traffic and scrape your manner around corners without so much as a scratch. The collisions are also a little inconsistent. Sometimes y'all'll meet bumpers passing through each other when cars are rubbing and, on occasion, a bump will cause the other car to go flying through the air. It does, yet, take some field of study. You lot're besides not going to be powersliding your style around every unmarried corner. Although it'due south a petty slow to commencement, once you trade upwardly to something with a little power, the game's got a bang-up sense of speed. Information technology's also fantastic to bulldoze to the darkly energetic licensed soundtrack, which is accentuated by the sense of speed. It's as well bad that a lot of the engine sounds are kind of whiny, but the eclectic, thematically consistent blend of straight-alee stone, grimy hip-hop, and futuristic electro more than makes up for information technology.

They're far from perfect, but the wingmen can give you a tactical advantage when you need it most.
They're far from perfect, but the wingmen tin give y'all a tactical reward when y'all need it most.

One of the features that actually sets Own the City apart from other street racers is its team racing mechanics. In many of the events that you'll have on, yous'll be allowed to take up to two wingmen with you onto the track. Each wingman will play a specific role. Brawlers can knock an opposing auto out for a few seconds, while assassins tin can incapacitate it for even longer by laying down spike strips. Drafters will give yous a short speed heave by cutting in front of you and letting yous slipstream behind them. As you slowly accept over the urban center, rival crew members will get bachelor as wingmen. You'll detect some also take unique subclasses, such as fixers, who will earn you a little greenbacks bonus when you win races; and mechanics, who will provide you with a performance boost when they race with y'all. It's pretty surprising that the wingman mechanics in Own the Metropolis are actually improve realized than what was featured in the console versions of Need for Speed Carbon, but it's still not perfect. For case, brawlers and assassins can only target cars that are in forepart of you. Then if in that location are multiple cars in front end of you, information technology'south difficult to pick a specific i. When they're non agile, the wingmen smartly stay just behind y'all. Simply once you give i of them the become-ahead, they seem to accept little regard for your car. They'll often bully their way by y'all and deadening you downwardly when they're ostensibly on their way to help you.

There's already a ton of achieved racing games on the PSP, simply the core driving in Demand for Speed Carbon: Own the Metropolis is solid enough. The unique features are likewise interesting enough for information technology to warrant a expect from street racing enthusiasts. It's different plenty from and, in some significant ways, improve than the console versions of Need for Speed Carbon that fans of those games will find a whole new game to enjoy in Ain the City.

Even if the event types aren't fantastic, the handling on the cars makes upward for a lot. At that place'south a cracking choice of real-world cars to purchase and customize, including many of the tuner, muscle, and exotic cars found in the panel versions of Demand for Speed Carbon. Each i also comes with unique and generally appropriate treatment characteristics. Cars that you unlock in the career manner go available in the game's multiplayer fashion, which lets you compete in circuit and sprint races both locally and over the Net. It also means that you lot'll demand to play a good deal of the game single-thespian before you get online. Our online experience was a piddling laggy, but it'due south pretty well fleshed-out. Information technology also has a ranking organization that helps ensure you lot'll exist taking on similarly experienced players.

They're far from perfect, but the wingmen can give you a tactical advantage when you need it most.
They're far from perfect, but the wingmen can give you a tactical reward when y'all need it most.

Regardless of where y'all play Own the City, it's not an overly technical, realistic racer. You can pretty much plow through any peripheral traffic and scrape your way around corners without so much as a scratch. The collisions are also a picayune inconsistent. Sometimes yous'll see bumpers passing through each other when cars are rubbing and, on occasion, a bump will cause the other auto to go flying through the air. Information technology does, however, take some discipline. Yous're also non going to exist powersliding your way around every single corner. Although it'due south a little slow to start, once you trade up to something with a little power, the game'southward got a corking sense of speed. Information technology's also fantastic to drive to the darkly energetic licensed soundtrack, which is accentuated by the sense of speed. It's too bad that a lot of the engine sounds are kind of whiny, but the eclectic, thematically consistent blend of directly-ahead rock, grimy hip-hop, and futuristic electro more makes up for it.

One of the features that really sets Own the Metropolis apart from other street racers is its team racing mechanics. In many of the events that you'll have on, you lot'll be allowed to take upward to 2 wingmen with you onto the rails. Each wingman volition play a specific role. Brawlers can knock an opposing machine out for a few seconds, while assassins tin incapacitate it for even longer by laying downwards fasten strips. Drafters will give you lot a short speed heave by cutting in forepart of you and letting yous slipstream behind them. As you slowly take over the city, rival crew members volition become bachelor as wingmen. You'll find some also have unique subclasses, such every bit fixers, who will earn y'all a little cash bonus when y'all win races; and mechanics, who volition provide you with a performance boost when they race with you. Information technology'southward pretty surprising that the wingman mechanics in Own the City are actually improve realized than what was featured in the console versions of Demand for Speed Carbon, but it's still non perfect. For example, brawlers and assassins tin can only target cars that are in front of you. And so if there are multiple cars in forepart of you, it's difficult to selection a specific ane. When they're not active, the wingmen smartly stay just behind y'all. But once you give i of them the become-ahead, they seem to have niggling regard for your car. They'll frequently bully their way past you and boring you downward when they're ostensibly on their way to help you.

There's already a ton of achieved racing games on the PSP, but the core driving in Need for Speed Carbon: Own the Metropolis is solid enough. The unique features are also interesting plenty for it to warrant a await from street racing enthusiasts. It'southward different enough from and, in some significant ways, better than the console versions of Need for Speed Carbon that fans of those games will observe a whole new game to enjoy in Ain the Metropolis.